PHP function ignoring an if statement

Question

Due to one agent wanting his website url on the functionality that I worked on a month ago I ended up having to make some minor changes. I have two function PHP pages that run a very similar script but I had to make two based of two value sets. What they echo onto the page with AJAX is exactly the same and this is where it gets a little weird...

The first script I did was successful but I needed to make a if elseif else statement so everyone agent didn't have a link that went no where. After fiddling around with this statement I was able to get just the one agent to have his website URL on there. Once I had that done I was under the impression that it would be smoothing sailing from there..it was not...

I used the exact same statement for both of their scripts and only one works. The only thing that differs from them is what value it is receiving and that I use JavaScript + AJAX for the first one (Which works) and then decided to learn jQuery + AJAX to do the next one. Before this they all worked and it is the exact code for both besides the use of JavaScript/jQuery (which is the same language) and one uses GET while the other uses POST

I also get no errors or anything while the function is running. The agent's name is Sam Fiorentino that is the only one with a website url. I went into the console for the second search, the radio buttons, and it shows the company name outside of the anchor tag which is the root of the problem. Why would one display it correctly while the other doesn't?

First PHP (Works)

while ($stmt->fetch()) { // Gets results from the database
                echo "<div class='agentcon'>" . "<span class='agentn'>" . "<strong>". $First_Name . "&nbsp;" . $Last_Name . "&nbsp;" . $Suffix . "</strong>" . "</span>" . "<a href=mailto:".$Email . ">" . "<span class='email'>" . "Send an e-mail to" . "&nbsp;" . $First_Name . "</span>" . "</a>" ."<div class='floathr'></div>";
                if ($Company == NULL) {
                    echo "<p>";
                }
                elseif ($Website == NULL) {
                    echo "<p>" . "<strong>" .$Company . "</strong>" . "<br>";
                }
                else {
                    echo "<p>" . "<strong>" . "<a target='blank' href=" .$Website . ">" .$Company . "</a>" . "</strong>" . "<br>";
                }

Second PHP (Doesn't Work)

while ($stmt->fetch()) { // Gets results from the database
                echo "<div class='agentcon'>" . "<span class='agentn'>" . "<strong>".$First_Name . "&nbsp;" .$Last_Name . "&nbsp;" . $Suffix . "</strong>" . "</span>" . "<a href=mailto:".$Email . ">" . "<span class='email'>" . "Send an e-mail to" . "&nbsp;" .$First_Name . "</span>" . "</a>" ."<div class='floathr'></div>";
                if ($Company == NULL) {
                    echo "<p>";
                }
                elseif ($Website == NULL) {
                    echo "<p>" . "<strong>" .$Company . "</strong>" . "<br>";
                }
                else {
                    echo "<p>" . "<strong>" . "<a target='blank' href=" .$Website . ">" .$Company . "</a>" . "</strong>" . "<br>";
                }

SQL + Binded code (First/Working one)

$sql="SELECT First_Name, Last_Name, Suffix,  Email, Company, WorkAddress1, WorkCity, WorkStateProvince, WorkZipCode, Work_Phone, Fax, Ancillary, SmallGroup, IndividualPlans, LongTermCare, Medicare, LargeGroup, TPASelfInsured, CertifiedForPPACA, Website FROM `roster` WHERE Last_Name = '".$q."' OR Company = '".$q."' OR WorkCity = '".$q."' OR WorkZipCode = '".$q."' ORDER BY Last_Name ASC";

        if(!$stmt = $con->Prepare($sql))
    { 
        die; 

    }else{
        $stmt->execute();
        $stmt->store_result();
        $stmt->bind_result($First_Name, $Last_Name, $Suffix, $Email, $Company, $WorkAddress1, $WorkCity, $WorkStateProvince, $WorkZipCode, $Work_Phone, $Fax, $Ancillary, $SmallGroup, $IndividualPlans, $LongTermCare, $Medicare, $LargeGroup, $TPASelfInsured, $CertifiedForPPACA, $Website);
        $rows = $stmt->num_rows;

SQL + Binded code (Not working one)

$poststr = $_POST['expertise']; //get our post data
    if(count($poststr) > 1){ //count to make sure we have an array
        $expertise = implode(" AND ",$_POST['expertise']); //implode the array using AND as glue
    }
    else{              //otherwise if it is only one no need for implode
        $expertise = implode("",array($poststr));
    }
    //here is our string for prepared statement
    $sql = "SELECT First_Name, Last_Name, Suffix, Email, Company, WorkAddress1, WorkCity, WorkStateProvince, WorkZipCode, Work_Phone, Fax, Ancillary, SmallGroup, IndividualPlans, LongTermCare, Medicare, LargeGroup, TPASelfInsured, CertifiedForPPACA, Website FROM roster WHERE ".$expertise." = 1 ORDER BY Last_Name ASC";

    if(!$stmt = $con->Prepare($sql))
    { 
        die;

    }else{
        $stmt->execute();
        $stmt->store_result();
        $stmt->bind_result($First_Name, $Last_Name, $Suffix, $Email, $Company, $WorkAddress1, $WorkCity, $WorkStateProvince, $WorkZipCode, $Work_Phone, $Fax, $Ancillary, $SmallGroup, $IndividualPlans, $LongTermCare, $Medicare, $LargeGroup, $TPASelfInsured, $CertifiedForPPACA, $Website);
        $rows = $stmt->num_rows;

Javascript + AJAX (First one/Working one)

<script>
function showUser(str)
{
if (str=="")
  {
  document.getElementById("bodyA").innerHTML="";
  return;
  } 
if (window.XMLHttpRequest)
  {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
  xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
  }
else
  {// code for IE6, IE5
  xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=function()
  {
  if (xmlhttp.readyState==4 && xmlhttp.status==200)
    {
    document.getElementById("bodyA").innerHTML=xmlhttp.responseText;
    }
  }
xmlhttp.open("GET","process.php?q="+str,true);
xmlhttp.send();
}
</script>

jQuery + AJAX (Second one/Not working)

$('input').on('click', function() { //Pulls data based on radial input
    var value = $(this).val();
    $.ajax({
        type: 'POST',
        datatype: "html",
        data: {
            expertise: value
        },
        url: "expertise.php",
        success: function (data) {
            $('#bodyA').html(data);
        }
    });
});

Any idea?

Live Site

Where are the variables $Company and $Website set? Can we see that code? — , Sep 30 '13 at 19:03
Sure! I just added an extra line of important info in the fourth paragraph. Let me upload the requested code. — Josh Powell, Sep 30 '13 at 19:05
Won't fix your problem but you can save a lot of keystrokes without having to concatenate every single element such as `echo "
" . "" .$Company . "" . "
";` --- let's shrink that down to `echo "
" .$Company . "
";` etc. --- unless concatenates turn your crank. — Funk Forty Niner, Sep 30 '13 at 19:05
Execute the `SQL`query again between the first and second while loop. — djot, Sep 30 '13 at 19:06
Are you expecting `$Company` and `$Website` etc to be read from each database fetch? I can't see that they are, presently. — halfer, Sep 30 '13 at 19:08
You say one script works and the other doesn't. So sopy paste the first into the second and vice-versa. Now if the first doesn't work and the second does, there is some weird typo somewhere. Otherwise it simply means that in the second context some variable is not set, like you're not getting a correct result for the db. — Sébastien, Sep 30 '13 at 19:12
The problem is I wrote the first one and then copy and pasted it to the second one. This is why I asked the question because it's the same code. I just am not very good at php :/ — Josh Powell, Sep 30 '13 at 19:13
@Fred-ii- I will most definitely start doing what you suggested! It won't help me here but it will allow me to write more in the long run while being faster. — Josh Powell, Sep 30 '13 at 19:16
@Bucky24 The $Company = Company and $Website = Website. They are both just columns in my database. — Josh Powell, Sep 30 '13 at 19:30

000 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-30T19:46:07.120

4

"<a target='blank' href=" .$Website . ">"

This is your problem: You do not have quotes around your url. It outputs like this:

<a href=http://whatever.com/path>Company</a>

You need to add quotes like this:

"<a target='blank' href='" .$Website . "'>"

The url looks like this!

<a target='blank' href=http://www.samfiorentino.com/>Sam Fiorentino & Associates</a>

It needs quotes. The ending / in the URL is ending the <a>.

The reason why the first one works but the second one doesn't:

innerHTML lets the browser interpret the html. $(...) is interpreted by jQuery, which does some fancy things for browser compatibility, but sometimes has drawbacks. Some browsers attempt to fix bad markup, and sometimes the browser does a bad job of it. jQuery makes them all mostly act the same.

See this jsfiddle for comparison: http://jsfiddle.net/Rk7SQ/

<p>Browser rendering:</p>
<p><a target='blank' href=http://www.samfiorentino.com/>Sam Fiorentino & Associates</a></p>

<p>jQuery rendering:</p>
<p id="jqrender"></p>

$(function() {
    $('#jqrender').html("<a target='blank' href=http://www.samfiorentino.com/>Sam Fiorentino & Associates</a>");
});

You can see that they are different.

edited Sep 30 '13 at 19:46

answered Sep 30 '13 at 19:09

000

26,951
10
71
101

I added that after and was stated in the comments. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:12
I will give this a try but why do you think it works with one while not the other? it also works with the email link which I did not add quotes on it as well. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:15
Okay so I tried adding `"'>" the extra comma in there and now the entire function for the `radio` buttons do not work. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:20
This is what I had "" which didn't include the website url but it still worked. I then tried what you suggested, which makes sense, "" and now nothing displays when you select one of the `radio` buttons. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:22
No $Website = Website which is one column in my database. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:28
I've edited my answer. That should prove to you that the quotes are missing. – 000 Sep 30 '13 at 19:30
I don't think you are lieing that the quotes are missing mate. What I don't understand is one when I add quotes it pulls nothing and two why does it work for one but not the other? – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:33
I just tried a few attempts to add the commas into my PHP script and it only seems to bring up a blank result. Am I doing something clearly wrong? `echo '
' . '' .$Company . '
';` this way also pulls a blank `echo "
" . "" .$Company . "
";`
– Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 19:50
The symbol `'` is called an apostrophe. The symbol `,` is a comma. Sorry, that was a minor point of confusion. I cannot see anything wrong with that line. Check your error logs. Possibly at `/var/log/apache/error.log`. – 000 Sep 30 '13 at 19:55
1

Thank you for correcting me and I'll try to figure out what is going on. My last question then is why does this work just fine with the email link? is it because it uses the `` This is just all slightly confusing to me but that's why I'll have a couple classes on all of this soon. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 20:02
The problem entirely stems from the website url ending with a `/`. The mailto link does not end with a `/`. If the website url didn't end with a `/`, this problem would not exist. – 000 Sep 30 '13 at 20:05
@JoeFrambach splendid I did not see that at first. – Sébastien Sep 30 '13 at 20:08
1

Ahh yes I wasn't thinking about the `/` in the url still. Thanks for your help, once I get the function working I will check this as the right answer. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 20:11
Well now it does nothing.. I'll hopefully get this back to working condition today and then I'll let you know how the end result is. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 20:21
1

I figured out what was going on and why nothing was changing. I did not re upload my scripts.js file to the server to replace previous attempts from me. It was running off a GET value while my script was looking for a POST value. Thanks a ton mate and I greatly appreciate the time you spent helping me. – Josh Powell Sep 30 '13 at 20:30
@JoshPowell In case you were curious, I've opened a question and answer that further explains *why* this happened: http://stackoverflow.com/q/19170292/1253312 – 000 Oct 04 '13 at 00:21
@JoeFrambach Thank you, I was indeed curious about it and the more I know is always better! – Josh Powell Oct 04 '13 at 13:05

PHP function ignoring an if statement

1 Answers1

Linked